Thread: Corruption crosses the border with agent bribes

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3203198

Corruption crosses the border with agent bribes
U.S. officers have been charged with taking money to let traffickers cross checkpoints
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

MCALLEN - The Border Patrol checkpoint on a remote stretch of South Texas ranchland was the ideal route for a drug trafficking ring to move tons of marijuana.

To make sure their product got through, traffickers paid $1.5 million to U.S. Border Patrol agent Juan Alfredo Alvarez, 35, to wave trucks loaded with a ton or more of marijuana through checkpoints outside Hebbronville, according to a plea bargain Alvarez agreed to earlier this month.

As Mexican drug cartels have transformed the Texas-Mexico border into one of the major transport corridors for marijuana, cocaine and heroin, traffickers have stepped up their efforts to bribe agents.

While attention has been focused on the wide-scale corruption of Mexican law enforcement officials by powerful drug organizations, recent investigations along the border have revealed corruption of several U.S. agents at key international crossings.

Alvarez, who awaits sentencing, joined nearly a half-dozen federal agents on the Texas border who have been convicted or charged in the past few months of taking bribes from drug dealers or human smugglers. Two weeks ago, members of a U.S. Justice Department sting operation arrested 17 current or former military and law enforcement officers who allegedly were paid $220,000 by undercover agents to allow counterfeit drugs to cross check- points on the Arizona border.

The most recent Texas corruption convictions include:

•Gerardo Diaz, a 43-year-old U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector who pleaded guilty in El Paso to accepting a $15,000 bribe to allow five kilos of cocaine to enter the Ysleta port of entry. He was sentenced in March to eight years in prison.
•In April, U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspector Fabian Solis, 41, was convicted of taking $300 for each undocumented alien he allowed to enter the country at international bridges in Roma and Rio Grande City. He is awaiting sentencing.
Veteran prosecutors and federal agents say trying to bribe an official who mans a border crossing point, a highway checkpoint in the interior, or a stretch of the Rio Grande is a risky but successful tactic.

"To a drug organization, it's the logical extension of a successful business plan," explained former federal prosecutor Eric Reed, who entered private practice in Houston earlier this year. ''I mean, if you have a hook in a law enforcement officer, you've got it made."


For the love of money
The reasons for corruption are varied, officials say, and include the experience of living in close-knit border communities where future drug smugglers grow up and attend school alongside future police officers. Additionally, drug organizations are known to use women to induce agents to help smuggling operations, one prosecutor notes.

''It's usually the money and sex because lots of times there's a woman involved," said a prosecutor, who asked not to be identified. ''Usually it's a male person taking the bribes."

And the bribe amounts can be staggering.

''It's the money and weakness," said one longtime U.S. agent stationed on the border, who would only speak if his name was not used. "It doesn't take a whole lot to approach an officer at a Port of Entry and ask, 'How would you like to make $5,000 a car?' "

Federal agents on the border earn more than local police, and a rookie Border Patrol officer is paid $35,000, while experienced customs or immigration inspectors can earn up to $70,000 with overtime, agency officials said.

In a corruption case pending in McAllen, a U.S. Customs inspector living in a $500,000 home â€â€

That's exactly why we need the military along the border!

[quote]''The temptations are so great in the border environment â€â€